Former President Donald Trump’s data protection court case over allegations he took part in “perverted sex acts” has been dismissed.
Trump, 77, had taken former MI6 Christopher Steele’s Orbis Business Intelligence to the British High Court in a data protection claim. He was seeking compensation for distress.
Mr Steele, who previously ran the Secret Intelligence Service’s Russia desk, was the author of the so-called Steele dossier which included denied allegations Mr Trump had been “compromised” by the Russian security service, the FSB.
At a hearing in October, the court was told Mr Trump is bringing his case over two memos in the dossier which claimed he had taken part in “sex parties” while in St Petersburg and engaged in “golden showers” with prostitutes in Moscow.
Lawyers of Mr Steele argued the claim was brought “for the purpose of harassing Orbis and Mr Steele and pursuing longstanding grievances”.
Mrs Justice Steyn dismissed the case on Thursday.
In a judgment on Thursday, Mrs Justice Steyn said: “In my view, there are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed to trial in circumstances where, whatever the merits of the allegation that the personal data are inaccurate may be, the claim for compensation and/or damages… is bound to fail.”
he added: “In reality, the claimant is seeking court findings to vindicate his reputation in circumstances where has not been able to formulate any viable remedy which he would have a real prospect of obtaining, or which would itself be of any utility; and having chosen to allow many years to elapse – without any attempt to vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction – since he was first made aware of the dossier, including the memoranda, on 6 January 2017.”
The High Court in London previously heard Trump accepts Orbis is not responsible for the publication of the dossier – as it was leaked to and published by BuzzFeed – but claims his data was processed by the consultancy. Hugh Tomlinson KC, for the former president, said Trump knows he has the legal responsibility to prove the allegations are false in this case, and that he “intends to discharge his burden by giving evidence in this court”.
In written submissions, the barrister said accused of unlawfully processing Mr Trump’s personal data, causing him “serious distress and reputational damage”. However, Antony White KC, for the consultancy, said in written submissions the case “has no realistic prospect of success” and has been brought too late.
He said: “The claim for compensation is principally based on reputational damage allegedly suffered by the claimant. This claim is bound to fail on limitation grounds and because any reputational damage, and any resulting distress, allegedly suffered will have been caused by the BuzzFeed publication, for which the claimant accepts Orbis is not liable.”
Mr White said the dossier was never intended to be made public and all copies of the memos held by Orbis were destroyed in 2017. The barrister later said Mr Trump’s case had been brought to pursue a “vendetta” against Orbis and Mr Steele.
